India to launch US satellites, use US technology
http://www.flightglobal.com/Articles/2006/03/Indian launchers will be able to carry US satellites, while Indian satellites will have access to US components under a deal signed by President Bush during a state visit to India on 1-3 March.
Bush finalised the agreement with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after a year of preparation by the two countries.
The deal was drawn up by a joint working group formed in June to look at expanding civil space co-operation. The group is led by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) satellite centre director P S Goel and US State Department principal deputy assistant secretary Anthony Rock.
â€œAn agreement has been reachÂ­ed that will permit US satellites and satellites containing US components to be launched by Indian space launch vehicles,â€

The recent accord would pave the way for US companies to hand out nuclear equipment, and give away technologies to India. India and US have signed an agreement on launching of satellites, and Moon exploration this will facilitate India to launch satellites licensed by US and gain more of NASA's best technology

There have been a number of cuts to the 'vision' in the past years and finally American astrobiologists, aerospace guys and the robot-fans really got to get a bitter taste of what force-feeding tactics were being used against the launch engineers and manned flight community.

However we should not gloat at the pain the robotic-community is feeling. Another huge problem is that the cuts are getting so bad that they may start hacking bits off the CEV and CaLV next. The VSE now has too little funding and not enough Presidential support, the CEV is getting scaled back and the Methane engine dumped, and they'll continue outsourcing to India.

The biggest problem is a combo of both political trouble and economic trouble, as the debts in US clock up, Iraq gets uglier, we see rising deficits, and people will of course want money spent on the Katrina victims. Foregt the 2006 cuts we'll still have more years of these budget cuts to face so we need to start thinking about a new president - who cares if its Republican like McCain or Democrat Kerry, but we need somebody to fix this outrageous budget quick and return the USA to fiscal sanity

as far as I know the Congress has the control of the budget. So I don't think that the President can do something regardless of who is the President. ...

I am remebering the articles at Space.com etc. about congressional discussions and debates about NASA's budget including the Bush plan. Ass ar as I remeber the Cingress wasn't against that plan. ...

FRor the success of the Bush plan Ã³utsourcing isn't the worst - it may prove to be positive: indian labour costs are significantlÃ¶y less than those in the west, indian engineers are skillful and there are successfull indina rockets.

So there should be a very close look at what is going to be outsourced - it may all be something India already knows to do and so it may be that no secrets are unveiled and no skills are given away. ...

I think Bush could at least mention the word 'NASA' again in his next speech

WASHINGTON â€” The Pentagon risks running out of scientists to operate and upgrade the nation's arsenal of intercontinental nuclear and conventional missiles, according to a report released this week by the Defense Science Board.
As the nation's veteran engineers and scientists retire, the military will lose much of its expertise in long-range missile technology, the report says. That means the Air Force and Navy, which operate most of the 1960s-vintage missiles, will be unable to cope with system failures or develop improved weapons, the report says.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington ... ence_x.htmNot only are fewer American engineers and scientists choosing to work on missile technology, there are fewer of them altogether, the report says. Each year, about 70,000 Americans receive undergraduate and graduate science and engineering degrees that are defense related, compared with a combined 200,000 in China and India, the report says.

Dubai could have a silver lining. The government didn't think twice about the security of six major seaports in the United States. It thought that what was good for the transnationals, for globalization, was good for the country. People now realize that corporate America is blind to the nation's security and its economy.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/ ... 6887.shtmlOnly government can protect our manufacturers, our economic strength. The bubble of "free trade," and of "protectionism," has popped. The charades of the "trade war" and of "globalization" are over. As Henry Clay observed in 1832, "The call for free trade is as unavailing as the cry of a spoiled child, in its nurse's armsâ€¦ It never has existed; it never will exist."

NASA's Space Station Science Web Pages Are Evaporating
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=1100Up until early 2005 NASA's web pages were once on a path toward providing an ever-increasing level of detail regarding research activities on the International Space Station (ISS). Links to peer reviewed research and recent results were prominently featured. Not any more. In the past year that noteworthy effort has been reversed such that the amount of information presented (or the public to see at least) is disappearing at an alarming rate.

A humor website
President George W. Bush announced today that he would no longer preside over so-called town hall meetings across the United States and that those duties would now be outsourced to a â€œpresidential customer service representativeâ€